What Video Game Did I Play Yesterday?

Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories (Switch)

December 30th, 2022

Today is my last day of work before a three day weekend, and (maybe) a short one at that. I have my doubts about how well it will go, but that is okay.

Last night, I turned on Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories and hit a stealth mission that's a triple whammy of bad lighting, bad camera, and funky controls, with the added bonus that the mission's theme is escaping drunks that plan to assault you. With Pokemon Violet over on my game shelf, I decided I didn't want to put up with it.

So, I turned on Pokemon Violet and proceeded to waste a lot of time with the character creator. I'm already, even after 10 minutes of gameplay, itchy to start the game over to redo my look. Once it got going, I had a big feeling that it didn't suit the character I'd made at all! I know that I can change hairstyles and eyes later in the game, though, so I'm going to do the "reasonable" thing and wait to switch looks rather than doing a restart.

Alas, my determination to defeat StrikeForce Kitty still has not subsided. I repeated some EXP heavy levels a few times each and shut the game off.

December 15th, 2022

I'm posting fast this morning, due to some tech slowdowns giving me trouble. I was really tired yesterday, like I was talking about in my morning post, so I played StrikeForce Kitty for a few minutes to relax before going to sleep, making a little progress.

Once I was ready to sleep, though, my neighbor started absolutely blaring music, which they do often late at night.. I had downloaded some free outfit DLC for Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories, so I played that one save point to the next before doing my best to get some sleep.

December 11th, 2022

I had a pretty decent, relaxing day after all of the nightmare insurance company stuff passed yesterday, but rather than playing a lot of different stuff, like I'd planned, I got really stuck on StrikeForce Kitty, a free game I got as part of the No Gravity Games promotion on Switch yesterday. I'm not sure StrikeForce Kitty is very good. Basically, it has short platforming levels full of enemies that your team of cats auto-battles, mobile game style. The foxes you battle have cosplay outfits you can win for your cats, with different attacks and abilities, and you can collect fish in the levels to increase your cats' stats, point by point.

Whether StrikeForce Kitty is actually any good or not is besides the point, as the combination of "leveling up," "unlocking things at a steady pace" and "look, cats!" kept me playing this for hours yesterday, and I don't expect much better from myself today. That is not a complaint. It is nice to get a pleasant surprise like this, and it seems like it'll be fun and easy to waste a lot of time getting 100% in this game. Perhaps the games I've actually paid for are shedding tears of abandonment on my shelf, but they'll get through this.

I put some time into Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories, too, anxiously approaching a subway based section of the game. I basically went save point to save point last night, which was fine, as progress is progress.

December 10th, 2022

Hello! I'm more up and at em than I have been to post the last few days today, due to spending the morning frustrated with my car insurance company. I did not have an accident or anything- they were just frustrating in regards to billing stuff. Even if it didn't really end in my favor, though, I bought a fancy sugar cookie latte, have some 80s J-pop on, and am in a much better mood just by merit of all that being over.

Today's post will start with website stuff rather than game stuff, so thanks for your patience! This week was crummy, so I didn't post about this sooner, but Gummy, the renowned webmaster of The Gumball Machine, made me a site button this week! It's so cute, too- check it out! (Speaking of, you should also check out Gummy's website, linked above! They do a Daily DYK feature, and the fun facts come highly recommended. Plus, the Chobits site theme is nifty.)

I've been a little stuck about some things I want to do to improve my website, but either late this month or early 2023, I want to add a communication/contact/community page, with links, a chatbox, and maybe a couple other things if I can decide what they'll be. Whenever I sat down before this week and tried to plan it, though, I either went "too much, I'm out!" or tried to make a button, which involved pushing myself to do intricate sprite art that I would then get frustrated and immediately delete. This site button made me feel like "ah, now I get it," which was really exciting.

For the time being, it will be at least a week before I have buttons and links added. I can see how it'll come together now, though, and that feels great. I also have some boring and practical stuff I'd like to do here, but I'll write about that when I get to it.

In any case, thank you, Gummy!

Game-wise yesterday, I'm mercenary enough to mess with the holiday season free shovelware chains that pop up on Switch, and yesterday's free game in the No Gravity Games chain was called Supersonic Tank Cats. It seemed pretty broken- it's a kart racer, but it popped up the "Wrong Way" message for no reasons a few times, and it missed counting some of my laps. Neither of those affected my outcomes, since the laps going uncounted affected the AI, too, but it was weird. The difficulty on the challenge missions was all over the map, too. The important thing is, though, that there are tank cats, which is a good concept, and you can pet them, which is even better. I'll definitely play this again.

Today's free game was about cats again. I will also be playing that.

I also kept up with Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories, which got me with a jump scare last night! I still really enjoy this game, and the fact that my character is now waltzing around in the wake of a disaster in a crisp and clean chef's hat does not make me enjoy it less.

I think today I'll end up playing a few different games for short play sessions, so tomorrow might be a long post again. On weekends, though, that's certainly no problem! I hope all of you out there are having decent weekends, too!

December 9th, 2022

Today's post will be exceedingly fast, because I had work nightmares and didn't want to get out of bed. I put on some sweatpants and jammed a few handfuls of cereal in my face, though, so I'm theoretically good to go.

Last night, I felt peppy enough to put in about an hour of Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories, featuring fire, jewel thiefs, a waitress trying to sell me expensive cheese, and a really rude IT guy. This game rules.

December 6th, 2022

Today is another office day, so I can't do a very good post before I have to go. There's not too much to say, though. I played Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories more last night, and even though I got a bad nighttime stomachache again, I could play for over half an hour. Right now in the game, I'm exploring and attempting a rescue in a building that the earthquake has rendered structurally unsound, to say the least. This led to some decent, fairly surprising set pieces that have been interesting to go through. I'm looking forward to my next play session, even if might not be tonight.

December 5th, 2022

I'm pushing it trying to post before work today, but since tomorrow is an office day, today is messier than normal, so it's easier to do this now.

My first game yesterday was Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax, which I reinstalled on my PS3 after talking about it at lunch with my brother the other day. I actually bought my PS3 for this game, because I was way into Durarara!! at the time, but went to Japan soon after and left the machine behind, leaving this game unfinished. I played Yukina's arcade mode last night.(I think she was from Strike the Blood- I read the first book in that series way back.)

Later, I played Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories, but got a bad stomachache and went to sleep before I could play very far.

December 4th, 2022

Yesterday was a big crafts, movies, and food with family day, so I didn't think I'd end up playing much at all. After I finished a few rounds of crafts and some idle doodling, though, I turned on Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories and got way too into it for longer than I intended. I got to the next area, did a line of "quests" in a convenience store, and took the time to pester one of my friends about how much I was enjoying it. My impression of it so far is that it's like an RPG would be if it were all NPCs, no battles, which is interesting. I also like how tiny and inconsequential some of the choices you can make are, like deciding how far your character travelled to the city as they think to themselves. I'm glad that my vague desire to play a game where you explore a place led to my picking this up off of my shelf the other night.

I'm not 100% sure what I'll do today. I have nothing going on and no cooking needs to worry about, but did get a new, obviously bootlegged craft kit in the mail I'd like to crack into. Video games will be involved, at least for a few minutes, but it's totally up to me how far I take that! It's nice.

December 3rd, 2022

Today isn't as bad as the last couple days have been. I've already been out and run some errands this morning, and since I don't have work to worry about today, I'm a little less tense.

Last night, I decided to get back on track to finish Kandagawa Jet Girls, clearing the peppy American dorks' story and moving on to the shrine maiden team's story mode, which actually offers somewhat of a challenge! The AI doesn't seem to be any better, though. Their jet ski just has miserable garbage acceleration states, leading me to think the challenge might fade as I can install better parts on their vehicle. I'm in this game to clear it, though, so I'll take points of interest where I can find them.

I also went back to Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories and, after starting over to make a very small change to my player character, wandered around for about an hour. So far, this is a very interesting mix of laid back exploring and sound design that evokes the idea that every building around you is damaged to the point that it will creak into submission. I'm enjoying it so far and interested to see where it goes next.

December 2nd, 2022

Today's post is going to be pretty bad, too. I wanted to play a game where I could wander around a place- specific, I know- so I started Disaster Report 4: Summer Memories on Switch. I was pretty tired, though, so I only played for 15 or 20 minutes. I'm kind of excited to play again tonight, though, and see what happens next.